cession might possibly depend upon it: a point which this king ever kept in view, having, though not a personal, yet a bleeding remembrance of the broils that so lately had depopulated the kingdom during the long contests of the two houses of Lancaster and York. Henry takes particular notice of this affair of the succession in his speech at the Black Friars ;* and it is well known that the remote issue of this very match, in the person of that accomplished lady, the lady Jane Grey, was very near creating this king's daughter Mary much trouble at the time of her accession.

Brandon himself, though a prime favourite, was still but a subject, and though the king afterwards might be induced to pardon him, and did so, yet it is not likely that he either intended or approved of the match: nay, I must think it impossible but that the marriage being solemnized and consummated without his leave, he, or indeed any other prince, would be highly offended at it; and if he had proceeded to take off the duke's head for it, it would have been far from being the most arbitrary, or most unjustifiable measure of his but too bloody reign. Both Brandon and the young queen were sensible of the danger they were incurring she, for her part, interested Francis I. king of France, to use his good offices with her brother before the celebration of the nuptials; and the duke in his letter to the Cardinal upon the occasion says, he told the king of France"He was like to be undone if this matter should come to the knowledge of his master," and yet he ventured to marry without obtaining his hard-ruled+ master's leave, or even without acquainting him with his design. It was certainly an act of great presumption, and the duke accordingly in one of his letters to Wolsey expresses his fears, that "when the king comes to be acquainted with the marriage, he will be displeased," and so he desires him to mediate in his favour.

After the marriage, Suffolk and the French queen wrote to the king to implore his pardon; and one is obliged to suppose, from the natural impetuosity of Henry's temper, that he was incensed enough at first, and that there was the utmost need for some powerful friend to interpose between the duke and danger: Wolsey was that friend: Wolsey was then but archbishop of York, neither cardinal nor lord high chancellor, and consequently his greatness was but just

* Cavendish, p. 90.

+ So Shakespeare makes Wolsey style Henry VIII.

Fiddes, p. 88.

dawning, wherefore the laying an obligation so personal on two such great personages as the king's sister and the duke of Suffolk, would be viewed by him as a step most advantageous to his own rising, and as such be most greedily catched at, since by their assistance he might effectually overbalance the duke of Norfolk, the duke of Buckingham, the bishop of Winchester, or any others that he deemed his most powerful rivals in the king's favour. In short, a pardon was obtained for this noble couple, and it was very much owing, as Fiddes himself observes, p. 88, to the good offices of Wolsey. Well might this cardinal then afterwards say to the duke, upon this sole account, that he of all men had the least occasion to speak ill of cardinals, for had it not been for him, his head would not have been upon his shoulders; intimating methinks plainly enough, that the king at the time was so violently enraged against the duke for marrying his sister without his leave, that had not the Cardinal pacified him, when perhaps no person living else could, he would have brought him for it to the scaffold. Yours, &c.

P. GEMSEGE.

1755, March.

VI. Strange Incident in the Life of HENRY V. explained.

Oxford, Feb. 13.

MR. URBAN, SPEED, in the life of Henry V. (Edit. 3.) tells us that when he was Prince of Wales, "He came into his father's presence in a strange disguise, being in a garment of blue satin, wrought full of eylet-holes, and at every eylet the needle left hanging by the silk it was wrought with." This strange disguise has often puzzled me as well as the author; and may be one reason why Rapin has taken no notice of it. But since my residence in this city, I have found the meaning of it in the following custom, observed annually on the Feast of the Circumcision, at Queen's College, where the Bursar gives to every member a needle and thread, in remembrance of the founder, whose name was Egglesfield, falsely deducing it from two French words, Aguille Fil, a needle and thread; according to the custom of former times, and the doctrine of rebusses. Egglesfield, however, is pure Saxon and not French; and the founder of Queen's College was an Englishman, born in Cumberland.

He was, however, confessor to a queen of Dutch extraction daughter to the earl of Hainault and Holland; a circumstance which probably gave rise to the false derivation of

his name.

Now prince Henry having been a student in that college, this strange garment was probably designed by him to express his academical character, if it was not indeed his academical habit, and such as was then worn by the sons of noblemen. In either case it was the properest habit he could appear in, his father being at that time greatly apprehensive of some trouble, from his active and ambitious temper, and afraid of his taking the crown from him, as he did at last; and the habit of a scholar was so very different from that of a soldier, in those days, that nothing could better efface the impressions the king had received against him, than this silent declaration of his attachment to literature, and renunciation of the sword.

Yours, &c.

1756, March.

G. S. GREEN.

VII. The Proclamation for celebrating the Coronation and establishing a Court of Claims, with the Claims made out before the Coronation of JAMES II.

GEORGE REX.

PROCLAMATION.

WHEREAS we have resolved, by the favour and blessing of Almighty God, to celebrate the solemnity of our royal coronation upon Tuesday, the twenty-second day of September next, at our palace at Westminster; and forasmuch as by ancient customs and usages, as also in regard of divers tenures of sundry manors, lands, and other hereditaments, many of our loving subjects do claim, and are bound to do and perform divers several services on the said day, and at the time of the coronation, as, in times precedent, their ancestors, and those from whom they claim, have done and performed at the coronation of our famous progenitors and predecessors; we therefore, out of our princely care for the preservation of the lawful rights and inheritances of our loving subjects, whom it may concern, have thought fit to give notice of and publish our resolutions thereon; and do hereby give notice of, and publish the same accordingly;

and we do hereby further signify, that by our commission under our great seal of Great Britain, we have appointed and authorised our most dearly-beloved brother and counsellor Edward Duke of York, with all the other members of the privy-council, or any five or more of them, to receive, hear, and determine, the petitions and claims which shall be to them exhibited by any of our loving subjects in this behalf and we shall appoint our said commissioners, for that purpose, to sit in the painted chamber of our palace at Westminster, upon Tuesday, the twenty-first day of this instant, July, at ten of the clock in the forenoon of the same day, and, from time to time, to adjourn, as to them shall seem meet, for the execution of our said commission, which we do thus publish, to the intent that all such persons, whom it may any ways concern, may know when and where to give their attendance for the exhibiting of their petitions and claims, concerning the services before-mentioned to be done and performed unto us at our said coronation: and we do hereby signify unto all and every our subjects, whom it may concern, that our will and pleasure is, and we do hereby strictly charge all persons, of what rank or quality soever they be, who either upon our letters to them directed, or by reason of their offices or tenures, or otherwise, are to do any service at the said day or time of our coronation, that they do duly give their attendance accordingly, in all respects furnished and appointed as to so great a solemnity appertaineth, and answerable to the dignities and places which every one of them respectively holdeth and enjoyeth; and of this they or any of them, are not to fail, as they will answer the contrary at their perils, unless upon special reasons by ourself, under our hand, to be allowed, we shall dispense with any of their services or attendances.

Given at our Court at St. James's, the 8th day of July, 1761, in the first year of our reign.

In order more particularly to explain to our readers the nature of those claims, we have here marked the claims of severul persons to do service at the coronation of king James II. and his queen, in 1683.

1. THE lord great chamberlain of England claimed at the said coronation, to carry the king his shirt and clothes the morning of the coronation, and with the lord chamberlain to dress the king. To have forty yards of crimson velvet for a robe, also the king's bed and bedding, and furniture of his

chamber where he lay the night before, with his wearing apparel and night-gown: also to serve the king with water, before and after dinner, and to have the basons and towels, and cup of assay. Allowed, except the cup of assay. He received the forty yards of velvet, and the rest of the fees were compounded for 2001.

2. The earl of Derby counterclaimed the office of lord great chamberlain, with the fees, &c. but was not allowed. 3. The king's champion claimed his office as lord of Scrivelsby manor in Lincolnshire, to perform the said office, and to have a gold cup and cover, with the horse on which he rides, the saddle, armour, and furniture, and twenty yards of crimson satin. Allowed, except the said twenty yards of satin.

4. The said office counterclaimed by another branch of the said family, but not allowed...

5. The lord of the manor of Lyston, in Essex, claimed to make wafers for the king and queen, and serve them up to their table, to have all the instruments of silver and other metal, used about the same, with the linen, and certain proportions of ingredients, and other necessaries, and liveries for himself and two men. Allowed, and the service, with his consent, performed by the king's officers, and the fees compounded for 301.

6. The lord mayor and citizens of London claimed to serve the king with wine after dinner, in a gold cup, and to have the same cup and cover for his fee, and with twelve other citizens, by them appointed, to assist the chief butler of England in the butlership, and to have a table on the left hand of the hall. Not allowed in the reign of king James, because the liberties of the city were then seized into the king's hands; but yet they executed the office, ex gratia, and dined in the hall, and had a gold cup for their fee.

7. The said lord mayor and citizens of London claimed to serve the queen in like manner; and were only disallowed, at that time, for the same reason.

8. The mayor and burgesses of Oxford, by charter, claimed to serve in the office of butlership to the king with the citizens of London, with all fees thereunto belonging.-Allowed, and to have three maple cups for their fee; and also, ex gratia regis, a large gilt bowl and cover.

9. The lord of the manor of Bardolf, in Addington, Surrey, claimed to find a man to make a mess of grout in the king's kitchen, and therefore praying that the king's master cook might perform that service.-Allowed, and the said lord of the manor brought it up to the king's table.